Advances in wireless communication technology have enabled development of low-cost and low-power wireless devices and links. Bluetooth® is a representative short-range communication scheme that enables low-cost and low-power voice and data communication between devices.
In typical Bluetooth® communication, a master device and multiple slave devices are interconnected to form a piconet. The master device initiates Bluetooth® communication by sending a Bluetooth® signal, and a slave device receives the Bluetooth® signal from the master device and communicates with the master device.
A Bluetooth® device desiring to be a master may set a frequency hopping sequence and broadcast an inquiry signal carrying the frequency hopping sequence to search for another Bluetooth® device in the vicinity. A Bluetooth® device conducting an inquiry scan may respond to the inquiry signal by sending an inquiry response signal carrying Bluetooth® Device Address (BD_ADDR) and clock information to the inquiring Bluetooth® device.
In the case where a few Bluetooth® devices are present in the vicinity, the number of responding Bluetooth® devices is small, and the inquiring Bluetooth® device may list most of the responding Bluetooth® devices on the display screen. The user of the inquiring Bluetooth® device may readily select a desired one of the listed Bluetooth® devices for communication. However, in the case where many Bluetooth® devices are present in the vicinity, the number of responding Bluetooth® devices may be not small and the inquiring Bluetooth® device may have to spend a long time to finish the inquiry procedure. In particular, when the inquiry list presented by the inquiring Bluetooth® device is limited in number of Bluetooth® devices, a Bluetooth® device desired by the user may be not present in the inquiry list. Hence, it is necessary to develop a method that enables efficient discovery of a desired Bluetooth device when many Bluetooth® devices are present in the vicinity.
Additionally, in the case when a first Bluetooth® device had communicated with a second Bluetooth® device in the past or the second Bluetooth® device is aware of the first Bluetooth® device, the second Bluetooth® device may repeatedly try to connect to the first Bluetooth® device even when the user of the first Bluetooth® device desires not to connect to the second Bluetooth® device. That is, the second Bluetooth® device may interfere with the first Bluetooth® device, preventing efficient Bluetooth® communication. Hence, it is necessary to develop a method that may effectively block connection with an undesired Bluetooth® device.